Prospects West and its predecessors started in the early 2000’s with a small camp and competition including SwimBC and Swim Alberta; in 2010, Swim Saskatchewan and Swim Manitoba joined in to become Prospects West as the annual event evolved and grew in scope, but still alternating between Alberta and BC every April.

In 2012, the decision was made to host the event at the Olympic Trials in Montreal; this event was met with great enthusiasm and support.While that excitement was certainly encouraging, the primary determining factor in the minds of our selection committee (three BCSCA representatives, plus SwimBC’s Performance Director) in moving forward with this initiative in 2016 was that roughly two-thirds of the swimmers from the 2012 squad will be eligible to compete at 2016 Trials, with five of them having already been named to at least one World Junior Championships squad.

Selection Rationale:

The past selection process of using FINA points in stroke categories has two significant drawbacks:

FINA points do not accurately represent relative placing, ranking, or accomplishment across various strokes and distances

Good swimmers in strong events can get overlooked

Therefore, in keeping with the process used to select swimmers for our Youth/Junior program, the selection for 2016 Prospects West will similarly use National rankings as outlined in the selection process contained here.